Nepal got a reality check when they clashed with Pakistan in what was their Asia Cup debut on Wednesday. They were outclassed in every department as Pakistan stormed to a massive 238-run win at Multan Cricket Stadium to begin their campaign.
To their credit, Nepal didn’t look completely at sea. They started well with the ball and their new ball bowlers did enough to keep Pakistan batters quiet in the Powerplay.
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They also effected a couple of run outs via direct hits.
In fact, both Pakistan openers – Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq – were sent back inside the first seven overs and it wasn’t before Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed shifted gears late into the innings that the hosts looked anywhere close to posting a 300-plus total.
Nepal bowled well, fielded well and batted decently but in short patches and their inexperience was quite evident. They dropped catches, leaked too many boundaries in the death overs and their batters couldn’t deal with the quality of pace and spin bowling Pakistan dished out under the lights.
Chasing 343, Nepal collapsed do be bowled out for 104.
Nepal captain Rohit Paudel says his team has batted well before but they were outplayed by Pakistan.
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“We started well with the ball, but both set batters took the game away from us. We have batted better before and we missed out today,” Paudel said during the post-match presentation.
Pakistan looted 129 runs from their final 10 overs with both Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed hitting century apiece.
“Wicket taking balls were not there in middle overs, but credit to Babar for the way he batted, credit to Pakistan. Learning from the game would be we need to improve bowling in death overs, as a group we need to step up with the bat,” Paudel said.
Nepal’s next game is against India, the most successful team in Asia Cup history and Paudel will hope his players can show improvement against the former champions.
Nepal take on India in what will be the first ever meeting between the two nations on a cricket field on September 4 at the Pallekle International Cricket Stadium.
In the second match of the continental tournament, co-host Sri Lanka will take on Bangladesh in Pallekele on Thursday.
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